The EGRN Extract: Proving You Own Property in Russia
An EGRN extract is the record from Rosreestr showing who is registered as the owner of a Russian property and what is registered against it. It is what foreign banks, courts, tax offices and probate lawyers ask for when they want proof of ownership. It has no legal expiry date — how recent it must be is the receiving office's call. We retrieve it, translate and certify it, and arrange apostille where that is needed.
If an office abroad has asked you to prove that you own property in Russia, the document it means is an extract from the EGRN — the Unified State Register of Real Estate, held by Rosreestr, the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography. An EGRN extract with a certified translation is the ordinary way that proof travels: the register says what it says, the extract prints it, and the translation makes it readable to whoever is asking. This article covers what is actually in the extract, why “how old is too old” has no legal answer, and what happens between ordering one and handing it to a foreign institution.
What an EGRN Extract Actually Shows
The extract describes the property and the right registered over it. On the property side: the address, the cadastral number that identifies the object uniquely across Russia, the area, and what kind of object it is — flat, house, plot of land, non-residential premises.
On the rights side: who is recorded as the right holder, what kind of right it is, whether the ownership is sole, shared in defined proportions, or held jointly, and the date and number of the registration entry. Then the part reviewers usually turn to first — registered encumbrances and restrictions. A mortgage, an attachment ordered by a court, a bailiff’s ban on registration actions, a lease, a right of use held by someone else: if it is registered, it is in the extract.
What it does not contain is as worth knowing. It does not print your passport details. It does not say what the property is worth on the open market, and it is not a valuation. And it does not certify anything about the future — it is a picture of the register on the day it was produced, nothing more.
One point of history still causes confusion. Until 2016 owners were issued a paper certificate of state registration of title, and many people still keep theirs in a drawer. Those certificates are no longer issued, and the reason is exactly the snapshot problem: a certificate from 2013 says nothing about a mortgage registered in 2019. The extract replaced it because the extract can be reissued today.
Which Extract To Order
“An EGRN extract” is not one document but a family of them, and ordering the wrong member is an easy mistake. What is wanted abroad in almost every case is the extract of the object’s principal characteristics and registered rights — the one that describes the property, names the current right holder and lists the encumbrances. That is the document behind the phrase “proof of property ownership in Russia”.
Occasionally a different one is meant: the extract of the transfer of rights over the object. It does not show today’s position at all; it shows the history — who held the property before you and when the right moved. Probate files, contested asset divisions and source-of-funds checks are where that version comes up.
One will not substitute for the other, and the mistake costs a full round of ordering and translating. If the letter from the bank or the lawyer just says “EGRN extract”, write back and ask whether they want the current owner or the chain of transfers. Sometimes the honest answer is both, and then it is worth ordering and translating them together.
How Recent Does It Have To Be?
There is no validity period written into Russian law for an EGRN extract. An extract from six months ago is not invalid; it is simply an accurate statement about six months ago. That is the whole of the legal position, and everything else is the receiving side’s policy.
Which means the only reliable answer comes from whoever asked you for it. A lender assessing security has a different tolerance from a court hearing a division of assets next week, and two banks in the same country will not necessarily agree. Some will name a number of days, some will simply say “recent”, some will not care at all.
Ask before you order, not after. Ordering an extract, translating it and then discovering the office wanted one issued inside a shorter window means paying for the whole chain twice, and it is the single most common piece of wasted spending we see on this document.
Why Offices Abroad Ask For It
Four situations account for most of the requests we handle. A visa or residence-permit application where the consulate is looking at your finances and ties: property in Russia is one of the things that can be offered as evidence of both. A divorce or a financial-disclosure exercise, where a court or the other side’s lawyers want the assets listed and documented rather than described. A mortgage or lending decision, where the bank wants to see both the asset and anything already registered against it. And probate, where an estate abroad includes Russian property and the court or the executor needs the register’s record of it.
These are patterns, not rules. No country obliges you to produce a Russian register extract, and whether the office in front of you wants one — and in what form, with or without an apostille — is that office’s decision. Ask them what they need and take their answer over any list on the internet, including this one.
Ordering, Translating, Apostilling
An extract about your own property can be ordered by you or by a representative acting for you under a power of attorney. If you hold a verified account on the Gosuslugi state services portal you can order it there yourself; if you cannot reach the portal from where you live, or would rather not deal with it, we order it for you under a power of attorney. Tell us at that point that the extract is going abroad, because the form it is issued in affects what can be done with it afterwards, and it is cheaper to get that right before ordering than to repeat the step.
Next comes the translation. A translator renders the extract in full — including the encumbrance section, which is the part a reviewer scrutinises — and a Russian notary certifies the translator’s signature. That certification is what turns a text file into a document a foreign institution will read as an official one.
Apostille, if it is asked for, is a separate step and not ours to grant: it is issued by the territorial body of the Russian Ministry of Justice. We apostille originals issued in the Krasnodar region; for documents from other Russian regions we apostille a notarised copy or refer a trusted partner. Plenty of offices accept a certified translation with no apostille at all, so confirm the point before paying for it. Where the extract is one piece of a larger file — a sale being run from abroad, an inheritance being settled across two countries — our real estate sale package handles the retrieval, translation and apostille of the whole set together rather than document by document.
- 1 Order the extract You order it yourself through Gosuslugi, or we order it for you under a power of attorney. Say at this point that it is going abroad.
- 2 Translate and certify The extract is translated in full and a Russian notary certifies the translator's signature.
- 3 Apostille, only if the receiving office wants one Issued by the territorial Ministry of Justice, not by Rosreestr and not by us. Many offices do not ask for it — check first.
- 4 File it where it was asked for Bank, court, consulate, tax office or executor. If they set a freshness window, count from the extract's issue date, not from delivery.
What We Need From You
- The property address, and the cadastral number if you have it — the number removes any ambiguity about which object is meant
- A copy of your passport, and a power of attorney if we are ordering the extract on your behalf
- Where the extract is going: the country, and whether the recipient is a bank, a court, a consulate, a tax office or an executor
- Whether that recipient has named a freshness window, and whether it has asked for an apostille
- A postal address abroad if you want the paper set couriered, plus an email or Telegram for the scan
You May Also Need
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EGRN Extract: Retrieval, Translation, Apostille
The service page for this document — what we need from you, and how the extract reaches you abroad.
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Real Estate Sale Package
Selling from abroad? The extract travels with a power of attorney, spouse consent and the title documents, handled as one set.
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Power of Attorney for Russia
What we need in order to request the extract for you — and the wording worth getting right before you sign.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my old paper ownership certificate still good enough?
Those certificates stopped being issued in 2016, and the problem with them is that they describe the day they were printed and nothing since — a mortgage or a court attachment registered afterwards does not appear. That is why an extract is asked for instead. Whether a particular office will look at your old certificate is its own decision, but it will almost certainly want a current extract alongside it.
Does the extract have to be less than 30 days old?
Not as a matter of Russian law — there is no expiry date on an extract. Thirty days is a policy some institutions apply and others do not. Ask the office that asked you for it, before you order, and work back from their answer.
Can I do all of this without going to Russia?
Yes. You give us a power of attorney, we request the extract from Rosreestr, arrange the certified translation and, if it is needed, the apostille, and courier the paper set to you with a scan by email in the meantime.
Does the extract show my passport number?
No. It identifies the right holder and describes the property, the registration entry and any encumbrances, but passport data is not printed in it. If an office abroad needs your identity tied to the extract, that is normally done with a translation of your passport alongside it.
Do I need an apostille on the extract, on the translation, or at all?
That is for the receiving office to say, and many do not ask for one. Where an apostille is required it is issued by the territorial body of the Russian Ministry of Justice. We apostille originals issued in the Krasnodar region; for other regions we apostille a notarised copy or refer a trusted partner.
How long does the whole thing take?
It depends on Rosreestr, the notary's diary and, if you want paper, the courier — so we give you a date once we know what is being ordered and where it is going rather than a number now. Tell us your deadline when you write and we will say honestly whether it is reachable.
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Need an extract for a bank, a court or a consulate?
Send the property address and tell us where the extract has to go. Within 2 hours during working hours you will have a fixed price, an honest timeline, and a straight answer on whether an apostille is worth paying for in your case.
We are not lawyers, notaries, valuers or property advisers, and this article is not legal, tax or investment advice. The EGRN is maintained by Rosreestr and the extract states what the register held on the day it was issued; we do not verify, interpret or vouch for what it contains. Whether any bank, court, consulate, tax authority or executor will accept the extract, how recent it must be, and whether it needs an apostille are decisions for that institution — confirm them before you order. An apostille on a Russian public document is issued by the territorial body of the Ministry of Justice. We apostille originals issued in the Krasnodar region; for documents from other Russian regions we apostille a notarised copy or refer a trusted partner. Typical door-to-door courier delivery to the EU or US runs 2–5 weeks on top of processing time.
